Hanne Cokelaere
A string of fatal drug-related shootings in the heart of the city that houses the EU’s institutions has brought home just how far Brussels has fallen: bankrupt, plagued by violence and crime, and politically wrecked.
In the first month and a half of this year alone, 11 shootings claimed the lives of two people and injured another four. They haven’t stopped. Unthinkable just a few years ago, the attacks betray a city in sharp decline and reveal the desperate need for some strong political leadership.
But Brussels doesn’t have any.
Belgium’s labyrinthine political structure contains a multilayered system of government, each with its own powers and often beset by infighting. When they work, things are fine, but when they don’t, paralysis results. And things don’t get much more paralyzed than in the Brussels region where, nine months after the election, politicians are still arguing with no government in sight.
It’s not just the coordination of Brussels’ crime-fighting that has been exposed by the political mess. The construction of social housing and major infrastructure projects also risks being delayed. Subsidies — such as for charities, NGOs and cultural projects — are frozen. Funding for social welfare centers, police and local authority work is shrouded in uncertainty. Public debt is piling up almost as quickly as the garbage bags on the dirty streets.
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